PONO - the return of high fidelity or industry gimmick?

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:02 pm

This has been in the offing for a while now, but Neil Young has just launched the Kickstarter for his new PONO high-end digital music player.

Take a look and watch the 11min+ video where everyone from Arcade Fire, to Beck, to Elton John and Sting are lining up to sing it's praises..

Have to say, on face value I'm impressed, although I'm not sure what the views of Kid Rock add to the argument...

Techboy · Post by **Techboy** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:25 pm

I dunno man, the guys at Linn Products were blogging about it positively and I trust them!

It's not like it's super expensive anyway so might be worth getting just because I don't really have a player at the moment - but max 128GB doesnt seem like a lot when you're talking about 96/24 flac.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:32 pm

Techboy wrote:I dunno man, the guys at Linn Products were blogging about it positively and I trust them!

It's not like it's super expensive anyway so might be worth getting just because I don't really have a player at the moment - but max 128GB doesnt seem like a lot when you're talking about 96/24 flac.

Yeah, I thought that too, but then think about it. How much of that music on your iPod do you REALLY need on there constantly anyway?? I don't think I've ever filled mine with stuff I play more than once or twice. The 'regulars' that I listen to often probably make up less than 10% easily.

I'm in I think. Incredibly the Money-Gestapo (ie. her indoors) didn't flip when I mentioned it either and that's as good as a proposal of marriage in my book.

Yeah, think I'll go for one.

Techboy · Post by **Techboy** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 1:04 pm

the money gestapo hha! Yes, good point, but it is still not too convenient to be swapping it out all the time.

Amo Bishop Roden · Post by **Amo Bishop Roden** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 3:40 pm

I'm really excited for this! Hopefully it gets all the funding it needs. It's about time portable music went hi-fi.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 4:43 pm

It's Kickstarter target was around $800,000 in 30 days. It's got around $2500000 in around 3 days

It's getting a tonne of stick online, I have to say. People don't like the shape, don't feel most people will notice the difference, plus they point at the likes of Sting, Foo Fighters, Metallica, RHCP and Mumford & Sons singing it's praises, apparently ignoring that Beck and Arcade Fire were equally impressed.

One journo complained it was too expensive only to then announce he'd continue using his $1000 Calyx M.

Another complained it would be a 'walled garden', ignoring that it also allows you to play MP3s, flacs, etc etc etc that you already own.

My iPod is 4 years old now so on borrowed time statistically. I get that the iPod / iPhone culture is pretty horrible, but if you like your music portable then you might as well have it in decent quality. Seems to me alot of the sniping is by people who already complain about overly compressed modern production.

Meh. I've ordered.

IanRedpoint · Post by **IanRedpoint** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:37 pm

I can't see myself buying much (if anything) from the Pono music store, but the idea of a high-quality portable thing to listen to lossless copies of what I already own is quite appealing. I like the inclusion of the two separate outputs, designed specifically for headphones and line out. I've been disappointed with the quality of the iPod/iPhone output for a long time and this addresses that problem.

fujee · Post by **fujee** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:47 pm

The Money Gestapo is the single funniest way I've heard a significant other described.

IanRedpoint · Post by **IanRedpoint** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 6:26 pm

fujee wrote:The Money Gestapo is the single funniest way I've heard a significant other described.

Yeah. I'm determined to drop it into casual conversation and see if my wife notices.

Coincidentally, my better half quite likes the idea of the Pono and agrees with me that I could make good use of it in the forthcoming garage/den/arcade.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 6:51 pm

If EITHER of you mention to my better half that I've referred to her thus, I'll bury your corpses somewhere over the Purbecks in the wee hours of July 5th...

fujee · Post by **fujee** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 7:03 pm

What happens on Twoism stays on Twoism my brother

Oh and good luck with that Ian

Goiter Sanchez · Post by **Goiter Sanchez** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 4:57 am

I am all for higher quality downloads and have spent a lot of time and money to make sure my entire collection is lossless. That being said I will readily admit that the psychoacoustic gains are limited and that quality mastering is a more important consideration than high-resolution files, e.g, 24 bit, 192kHz 'Death Magnetic' is still going to sound like brickwalled shit regardless of the file resolution unless it is mastered differently. I wasn't surprised to see that only musicians, as opposed to mastering engineers, were interviewed for that 'reactions' vid: instead of audio science we are fed adjectives like 'warm', 'round' and 'alive': notions that are entirely subjective and unquantifiable.

Also, they weren't even talking about the hi-fi in that car which is the really crucial component for the experience that the celebrity listeners were having, as opposed to the file resolution.

I smell audiophile bullshit, and this is coming from an audiophile :p

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 7:07 am

Agree with almost all of this post ^^^.

Instinctively I wonder what system was in 'that' car. It must sound great judging by the reactions but when I read Pono will be selling headphones designed specifically to get the best out of the player, well, that can go one of two ways can't it?

Jury is out for now. I've got the thick end of a month to hit the chicken-switch and bail out on my bid. Got $100 off the retail price by getting on board early. Just wish I'd scooped one of the 100 that were going at half price.

Digging out Perfecting Sound Forever by Greg Milner again in the meantime. It was in that book that I first read about Neil Young's position on all of this..

"We'll look back and go, 'Wow, that was the digital age. I wonder what the music really sounded like?' We got so carried away that we never really recorded it. We just made digital records out of it."

pianoforte · Post by **pianoforte** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 5:06 pm

Personally, I still like cassettes.

That being said, I do have a pretty decent collection of music in flac and it would be nice to be able to listen to it on-the-go. I've put some mp3s on my iPhone to listen to while running, but they sound, well, awful.

re-phaelam-ed · Post by **re-phaelam-ed** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:35 am

i think devices dedicated to playing music are dying a hard one. everyone wants the all in one...AKA cell phone.

i also find it funny that they have all these noise reduction features for a small portable device that people will use with 'earbuds'. no one will be using headphones of the quality needed to make use of the features while 'on the go'. theres no fucking way I'm walking around with my PS-1000s on the street.

and on top of that, what a awful choose for shape. it may be small...but why a triangular shape. thats not sitting well in your pocket.

though backed...and then some....its just not worth having another device in my pocket.
[and signed? ha ha ha ha.....who cares.]

thedisavowed · Post by **thedisavowed** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:30 pm

The market for this will be small - but that's how it is with all audiophile stuff I'd imagine. I used to be crazy about flacs and stuff - until one day I realized that the mp3s I had of Brian Eno's "Apollo" were crappy 128kbps - and that I had never noticed and was only now aware that they were 'crappy'.

It could be that I just have crappy/untrained ears but I realized at that moment how much of my audiophilia was purely in my mind.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 2:01 pm

re-phaelam-ed wrote:i think devices dedicated to playing music are dying a hard one. everyone wants the all in one...AKA cell phone.

Careful with the 'everyone'. This one here is quite happy with a dedicated player and refuses to spend the ridiculous money for an iPhone here in the UK. Call me a Luddite I guess?

Radiobuzz · Post by **Radiobuzz** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:40 am

I would camp in line to hear MHTRTC in this format, regardless of how superior it actually is. I think many of you would, too.

7113(18|3) · Post by **7113(18|3)** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:08 am

An interesting read.
http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

Goiter Sanchez · Post by **Goiter Sanchez** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:29 pm

7113(18|3) wrote:An interesting read.
http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

Essential read: thanks for posting that! *bookmarks page*